Huston, John (1906-1987)

The multi-faceted John Huston entered modern cinema history in 1941 when he wrote the screenplay for The Maltese Falcon, also making his directorial debut. The film established his reputation, began a significant working relationship with Humphrey Bogart, and pointed to his preference for mining literary sources for his material—in this case, Dashiell Hammett. In the course of a long and decidedly erratic career, Huston dealt memorably with human greed in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1947), winning Oscars for his screenplay and direction, and Key Largo (1948); plaudits greeted The Asphalt Jungle (1950), often considered his best film, and he entranced audiences by pairing Katharine Hepburn's missionary and Humphrey Bogart's booze-drenched river trader as companions in adversity in The African Queen (1952)—an idea beguilingly echoed by Deborah Kerr's nun marooned on a wartime Pacific island with Robert Mitchum's marine in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison...